Saturday, October 24, 2015

Book Review: Join In The Discussion of Bob Dylan's Music With "Dylan: Disc By Disc"

There are probably several musicians that you can have a discussion about with friends and family, but probably the most analyzed musician of all time has to be Bob Dylan. His career has lasted over fifty years and in that time, he has recorded thirty-six albums and on each album is an amazing array of songs that mean many different things to different people. To prove that theory is the brand new hardcover book "Dylan: Disc By Disc." It features a "round-table" discussion about every one of Bob Dylan's albums and what the lyrics of his songs may or may not mean in the concept of life to every individual.

Author Jon Bream has gathered together authors, teachers, radio hosts, magazine editors and fellow musicians to give their insight into which Bob Dylan albums have the most importance in their lives. Bream divides the group into pairs of two and asks the important questions that may be on everyone's mind like "how important is this album to you" or "what meaning does this album have in your life?" The book is divided into chapters for each album, beginning with his self-titled debut album all the way to his 2015 release "Shadows In The Night." Bream does a masterful job with the questions to begin lengthy discussions on the importance of Bob Dylan's "Freewheelin'" album and what Bob Dylan may have been thinking when he made "Slow Train Coming."

While many of Dylan's hit albums have been over analyzed, it's nice to get perspective on his more recent releases like "Tempest," "Together Through Life" and even "Christmas In The Heart." Reading this book from beginning to end shows the growth in the impact that Bob Dylan had in music and the concepts of everyday life. But, the nice thing about this book being broken up by album chapters is that you can skip around to some of you favorite albums to see another people's perspective from some that have been in the music business or have developed their own theories to the meanings behind the songs. After reading this book, you may even look at some of Bob Dylan's album in a different light that you may not have thought about in that way before.

"Dylan: Disc By Disc" was published on August 1st through Voyageur Press. It contains 240 pages and tons of never before seen photos of Dylan through the years. To find out more about this must have for Bob Dylan fans, please visit quartoknows.com.